Junior Perry Stevenson, left, and sophomore Patrick Patterson guard Georgia’s Howard Thompkins in the Cats’ 68-45 win Sunday. Photo by Zack Brake | Staff

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ATHENS, Ga. — Respect.

It’s something the Cats are fighting, diving and blocking their way for. UK has now won nine of its last 10 games after defeating Georgia 65-48 on Sunday at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga., in front of 9,090 people.

The first aspect of respect was the block party the Cats (14-4, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) held on Sunday. They recorded 11 blocks as a team, led by sophomore Patrick Patterson’s four. Even Jared Carter, the lone senior, turned away a shot in the last minute of the game. Seven Cats recorded a block.

“I thought we played well defensively from the go,” UK head coach Billy Gillispie said. “There were a million things I liked today.”

UK held the ‘Dawgs (9-9, 0-3 SEC) to 31.1 percent from the field, the lowest a Cats opponent has shot since Central Michigan made just 31 percent of its attempts on Dec. 29. Junior Perry Stevenson led the way, according to Patterson, with his ability to challenge shots in the post.

“We just try to not let people score. It’s what we take pride in,” Stevenson said. “We have a great quote-unquote captain in Coach G., who just takes pride in defense, and so do we.”

Outside of being able to challenge the shot in the post, Stevenson, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds, flashed an unusual dynamic to his game — a 3-point shot. With the shot clock winding down in the second half, Stevenson found himself open at the top of the key with the ball. With no hesitation, he let it fly. Sure enough it was nothing but net.

“I shot it because there were four seconds left,” Stevenson joked when asked about the shot. “It’s something I’m working on in practice so when the opportunity comes, I’m ready to take it.”

Of course, junior Jodie Meeks did the impossible in back-to-back games, as Gillispie called it. No, he didn’t score 54 points again. In fact, he didn’t even put up half of that. He finished with 22 points, but provided a play that Gillispie will remember as, well, impossible.

In the second half, with the ball flying out of bounds near the UK bench, Meeks started to chase after it before throwing his body into assistant coach Jeremy Cox and saving the ball to a streaking Patterson.

“The hustle play that Jodie makes. That’s a ball you can’t get. It’s impossible,” Gillispie said. “Then your other best player is hustling because he believed Jodie could get that ball. Those are my kind of teams. Gritty and hard-nosed.”

Whether the Cats break into the top-25 polls or not this week, following convincing wins at No. 24 Tennessee and at Georgia, is something UK doesn’t worry about. Both Meeks and Stevenson said the team is just worried about going one game at a time and winning that one game.

“That’s not up to us. That’s up to the writers,” Meeks said. “We’re just going to keep going out and playing the game.”